The Scottish Government’s Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) has supported hundreds of community energy projects over the last three years, including decarbonising community and faith buildings, developing new wind projects and installing hydro projects, and supporting communities to benefit from commercial scale renewable energy projects.

We are now in our final year of the current CARES contract, and this means that we will need to bring funding streams in the current form to an end throughout the year to allow projects time to fully complete and submit their final claims before the end of February 2025.

The Scottish Government will use the final year of the contract to review the support available to communities through CARES and assess the needs of any future support.

Here’s a summary of our current funding schemes and what will happen next.

The off-electricity grid communities fund is now closed to new applications. We will continue to support current projects through to March 2025.

The current iteration of Community Buildings Fund will end on 31 August 2024, or when funding is fully allocated, whichever is sooner. Funds will be allocated based on fully submitted applications, with supporting information including your selected quotation. Funds are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis and for the avoidance of doubt funding isn’t allocated until you receive a grant offer letter from Local Energy Scotland. Please note that:

  • All work related to this funding must be completed and all funding claimed by 28 February 2025. There are no exceptions to this, and no extensions will be granted beyond this date.
  • You must have a quote with an installation date to apply. See our guidance on seeking quotations from installers to get started.
  • In many cases, it’s no longer necessary to seek independent advice (eg a report from Business Energy Scotland) for your proposed measure choices before applying for funding. Further guidance is available on our website.
  • You may decide to wait or work towards applying for future support.

If you are thinking of applying to the Community Heat Development Programme, please apply for support for as soon as you can. Support for new applications for feasibility and project development is due to end on 31 August 2024 or when the budget is fully allocated, whichever is sooner. Learning captured from the current programme will inform any future work.

CARES has a small amount of funding to support communities that are getting, or may get, community benefits and we direct support to communities with the greatest need. Don’t forget that our toolkit is full of useful information to help you take your project forward and funding is often available through renewable energy developers.

If you are working on a shared ownership project, please keep progressing. We understand that shared ownership projects can take a number of years to develop, and support is needed along your journey. You can request our advice, support and funding whatever stage your project is at, even if the project will not be operational until after 31 March 2025. At this point we will only be able to give you a grant offer letter for work through to 28 February 2025.

Don’t forget that our local development officers and energy specialists will still be on hand to support you throughout the year to bring your projects to life.